Dickies

I first saw the Dickies in the somewhat incongruous surroundings of the Nottingham University Freshers Ball in 1990. The Lord only knows whose idea it was to book them but certainly they were the only reason that my new friend Dave and I were there, sophisticated Post-Graduate members of the American Studies Department that we were, surrounded by drunken, lairy teenagers enjoying the alcohol-fuelled and desperate escape-scramble of their first week away. I'd heard the famous Top-Ten-bothering 'Banana Splits' theme, of course, and neatly filed the group away somewhere in a mental folder labelled 'joke bands', but Dave, who was and is somewhat of an expert in these matters, assured me that they were worthy of our attention. And of course they were brilliant; the same insouciant mix of speed, sleaze and energy that makes their debut album 'The Incredible Shrinking Dickies' such an ageless punk classic was, if anything, even more fully realised in the live setting. I was well into America's post-punk, post-hardcore alt-rock scene at the time, of course, through the popularity of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jnr., The Pixies and their ilk, but it was Dave who went on to introduce me to the vast US punk and hardcore scene that had spawned it via a series of haphazard compilations he put together for me from his extensive vinyl collection. We saw the Dickies again in the mid-nineties at a short-lived venue in Derby with the word 'Rock' in it's name - and interviewed them for a fanzine afterwards in a scabby cafe where guitarist Stan Lee outlined his concept of 'Dickies Time', a kind of reverse 'dog years' concept that allows the band to keep themselves energised (possibly he was talking about drugs, I dunno...; either way, they were still great...) So, I was quite excited to see them again in the relatively palatial surroundings of the Rescue Rooms tonight, despite the fact that I had just discovered that the Pains of Being Pure At Heart were playing across town at the Bodega (a date that was certainly not there when they announced the tour a few weeks back - damn you, fey New York Indie-hipsters!) which had taken the shine off slightly. Plus Dave had let me down this time, having spent all his money on his annual trip to the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool and the print run for the latest issue of his 'Failsafe' punk fanzine. So I gritted my teeth, consulted a couple of online tutorials for taking gig photos, took my (previously purchased) ticket and went along anyway, and guess what? The Dickies - whilst in no way, singer Leonard assured us, "Hardcore" - are still great! Loud, vastly entertaining and full of manic energy. I came away with a smile on my face, a buzzing in my ears and a healthy disregard for hipsters...